Agency problem

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Agency problem

Conflicts of interest among stockholders, bondholders, and managers.

Agency Problem

A situation in which agents of an organization (e.g. the management) use their authority for their own benefit rather than that of the principals (e.g. the shareholders). The agency problem also refers to simple disagreement between agents and principals. For example, a publicly-traded company's board of directors may disagree with shareholders on how to best invest the company's assets. It especially applies when the board wishes to invest in securities that would favor board members' outside interests.
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References in periodicals archive ?
Foreign aid suffers from a principal-agent problem, in which organizations prioritize donors' political and commercial interests over recipients' needs.
Foreign aid is a failure: throwing good money at bad governments makes poor countries worse off
Spatial models miss the mark by failing to recognize that the confirmation process is both a political negotiation and a principal-agent problem.
Presidential success in Supreme Court appointments: informational effects and institutional constraints
This principal-agent problem applies elsewhere in energy, too.
How mega Internet data centers can go greenhouse gas emission free
If you think that the power of the servant is not a form of power at all, then maybe you should spend a little time talking to someone who studies administrative law or, indeed, anyone who has written on the principal-agent problem.
The federalis(m) Society
The principal-agent problem that bedevils even democratic governments is particularly pronounced in authoritarian regimes, such as Iran's, which are not accountable to an electorate.
Debating next steps on Iran
33) Second, there is a deeper principal-agent problem, as
Regulating financial institutions: the value of opacity
Tuan-Hwee Sng, Northwestern University, "Size and Dynastic Decline: The Principal-Agent Problem in Late Imperial China 1700-1850"
Working Group on the Chinese Economy
This principal-agent problem is a concept we've all seen before.
Zacks Investment Ideas Feature Highlights: Kronos Worldwide, MSC Industrial Direct, AmTrust Financial Services and Syntel
The principal-agent problem in development assistance reflects the fact that donor agencies in affluent countries (the agent) primarily seek to please donors and taxpayers in their home countries (the principal) rather than developing country recipients.
E-mentoring as a toll to make aid for Trade more effective: developing countries that create an institutional environment that is favourable to economic and technological change tend to benefit most from the effects of international trade liberalization. In contrast, countries that primarily focus on protecting vulnerable economic sectors with public sector subsidies tend to crowd out private sector investment
The economics-and-law literature on the principal-agent problem of public corporations is extensive.
In defense of private equity
This article addresses the principal-agent problem that was already existent in China's state-owned media but became much worse after China's media reform in 1978.
The principal-agent problem in Chinese state-owned media
There is a principal-agent problem in the three-way relationship, because the sports agent is negotiating on the behalf of the athlete.
Regulation in the market of sports agents. Or no regulation at all?

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